Edward I Down to Henry III. inclusive the reign of each king is dated from his coronation only. The interregnum between the death of the old and the coronation of the new King was always made as short as possible, in consequence of the serious inconvenience resulting from the doctrine that the king's peace was interrupted during a vacancy of the throne. But when the coronation was delayed, as happened in the cases of Henry II., Richard I., and John, who had cach been absent in France at the death of his predecessor, the regal title was never assumed until the process of election and coronation had been gone through. Until then they were only entitled 'Dux Normanniae,' or, as Richard I. was styled in the proclamation issued by his mother-and also in a charter granted by him before his coronation, ‘Dominus Angliae. Edward I. was the first King who reigned before his coronation. His father, Henry III. died on the 16th Nov., 1272, whilst Edward was absent in Palestine. Four days afterwards, when Henry was buried in Westminster Abbey, the Earl of Gloucester, with the prelates and barons, swore allegiance to Edward as King. His hereditary claim perfected by the fealty of the baronagethe old election in a feudal guise-appears to have been now regarded as conferring the name of King previous to coronation. But the idea of election, and the necessity for consent to a king's accession, were still preserved. During the four days which elapsed between the death of Henry the way of a judicial decision for the nephew. In treating of the writ of entry, Bracton, f. 327 b., says expressly et cum de propinquitate constiterit quamdiu casus regis duraverit nunquam ad judicium proceditur.'-Twiss's Bracton, i. xlv. Nicolas. Chronol. of Hist. 272. Supra, p. 198. 3 Archæologia, xxvii. 109. Antequam corpus regis Henrici traditum esset sepulturae, Gilebertus comes Gloverniae . . . proprie voluntate ductus, tactis sacrosanctis corporale praestitit juramentum, quod pacem regni pro viribus suis custodiret, et fidelitatem domino Edwardo tanquam domino suo per omnia observaret. Similiter dictus archiepiscopus Eboracensis, et etiam Herefordiae et Warennae comites, et multi alii qui tunc praesentes erant ibidem.' Ann. Winton. p. 112. Magnates regni nominarunt Edwardum filium suumn in regem.' Annal. Dunst. p. 254. Recognoverunt paternique successorem honoris ordinaverunt.' Rishanger, p. 75. Nominare and ordinare' imply much more than passive acquiescence in the succession of an heir and the recognition of Edward as King, the throne was legally vacant. The new King's reign was dated not from the death of his father, but from the day on which the oath of fealty was taken and in the order for the proclamation of the King's peace, issued in his name three days later by the royal council, Edward asserts the crown of England to have devolved upon him 'successione haereditaria ac procerum regni voluntate et fidelitate nobis praestita. Shortly afterwards the oath of fealty was renewed in a great assembly held at Westminster after the feast of St. Hilary, 1273, and attended not only by all the prelates and other magnates of the kingdom, but by four representatives from each county and each city A.D. In the proclamation issued on the accession of Edward Edward II. II. he was declared to be already King of England by A. 1307. descent of heritage (ja roi d'Engleterre par descente de heritage'), the words referring to the consent of the magnates of the realm being omitted. From henceforth the old civil clection dropped out, and hereditary succession IIereditary became the established rule, subject, however, in cases of established. necessity, to the paramount power of Parliament, not only succession 1 Duffus Hardy, Introduction to Close Rolls; Nicolas, Chronology of History, p. 291-2; Allen, Royal Prerogative (ed. 1849), p. 46. Foedera, i. 497. For the first time,' says Professor Stubbs (Const. Hist. ii. 103) of Edward I.'s accession, the reign of the new King began, both in law and in fact, from the death of his predecessor.' With all deference, however, to so eminent a historian, it is evident that although the hereditary claim of Edward was admitted without opposition, yet in law, and in fact, there was actually no King for the space of four days. Indeed, the Professor had just before told us that his reign began on the day of his father's funeral.' The fact that the regnal years of Edward were dated only from the day of his recognition as King by the baronage marks the persistence of the elective idea, and the difference still recognized between the Kingship and a private inheritance. It is important not to antedate the steps in the development of the hereditary doctrine. As Edward Iwas the first King who reigned before coronation, so Edward II. was the first whose reign is dated from the day following the death of his predecessor. The theory embodied in the legal maxim the King never dies,' is of still later growth. It may be said to have been practically accepted from the accession of the House of York: yet even Henry VIII.'s reign commenced on the day after the death of his father (Nicolas, Chron. of Hist.). From the accession of Edward VI. there has been no interregnum, however short, except only where the line of succession has been broken. 3 Ann. Winton. p. 113. + Foedera, ii. 1. Walsingham (i. 119) says, 'Successit. haereditario quam unanimi assensu procerum et magnatum.' non tam jure to the paramount right of Parlia ment to settle the succession. to depose an individual Sovereign, but also, for good reason, to set aside the direct line of descent and establish a new royal stock. The ecclesiastical form of election by the clergy and people survived the civil form, and was maintained, in the coronation service, down to the accesBut subject sion of Henry VIII.; since whose time a mere recognition by the people is all that takes place. The right of the National Assembly-whether acting as a technically constituted Parliament, or as a Convention of the Estates of the Realm-to regulate and vary the succession to the Crown, has been constantly claimed and exercised, whenever the safety and welfare of the Kingdom have imperatively required it. The deposition by the Witan of Sigeberht in 755, of Ethelred the Unready in 1013, and of Harthacnut in 1037. have already been referred to in a previous chapter." Since the Norman Conquest there had hitherto been no actual case of formal deposition: but we have seen the Barons under King John renouncing their allegiance and electing Lewis, son of the King of France, to be their King; and the misgovernment of Henry III. caused a change in the succession to be again mooted amongst the Deposition of baronage. In 1327, however, Edward II. was formally deposed by the Parliament which assembled at Westminster on Edward II. A. D. 1327. 1 • Hereditary succession in monarchical states is nothing more than an expedient in government founded in wisdom, and tending to publick utility: and consequently whenever the safety of the whole requireth it, this expedient, like all rules of merely positive institution, must be subject to the controul of the supreme power in every state. . . . Title by descent was always esteemed by the legislature a wise expedient in government; but in cases of necessity, it was never thought to confer an indefeasible right; because that would have been to defeat the end for the sake of the means.'-Sir Michael Foster, (one of the judges of the King's Bench), Discourses on Crown Law, p. 405 (ed. 1792). The form for the coronation of Henry VIII., drawn up by that king himself, has been preserved. Hereditary right and elective right are set forth in equally strong terms. I'rince Henry is described as 'rightfull and undoubted enheritour by the lawes of God and man,' but also as electe, chosen and required by all the three estates of this lande to take uppon hym the said coronne and royall dignitie.' The assent of the people is asked thus: 'Woll ye serve at this tyme, and geve your wills and assents to the same consecration, enunction and coronacion? Whereunto the people shall say with a grete voyce, Ye, ye, ye; So be it; Kyng Henry, King Henry.'-Maskell, Mon. Ritual. iii. 73; Freeman, Norm. Conq. iii. 622. 4 Supra, p. 138. the 7th January, 1327, after a bill of six articles, drawn up by Stratford, bishop of Winchester, had been exhibited against him. These articles set forth as the reasons for his deposition, that he was devoid of the ability to govern, had suffered himself to be led in all things by evil counsellors, had neglected the business of the State, lost the Crown of Scotland, broken his coronation oath, ruined his kingdom and people, and that there appeared no hope of his amendment. The Parliament therefore resolved that the Lord Edward, the King's eldest son, should immediately take upon him the government of the kingdom and be crowned King. As an additional precaution, the Queen's advisers determined to procure a formal resignation from Edward II. On the 20th of January a deputation of prelates, carls, barons, abbots, and two judges, waited on the King, then a prisoner in Kenilworth Castle, and, after notifying to him the resolution of Parliament, obtained his consent to the election of his son. Then Sir William Trussell, in the name of the rest, and as procurator for the whole Parliament, renounced the homage and fealty which the members had severally made to the King, and declared that they should thereafter account him as a private person without any manner of royal dignity. The ceremony ended by Sir Thomas Blount, the steward of the Household, breaking his staff of office, as a sign that his master had ceased to reign as completely as if he were dead.1 .D. 1327. In the proclamation of his peace issued on the 24th of Edward III. January, the twofold title of Edward III., derived from the common counsel and consent of the Estates of the realm and the resignation of his father, are carefully set forth. On the 29th of January he was crowned at Westminster. The deposition of Richard II., in 1399, was preceded, as IIouse of in Edward II.'s case, by a so-called voluntary resignation, Lancaster 1 T. de la Moor. pp. 600, 601; Kuyghton, c. 2549; and see Lingard, iii. 345, and Stubbs, Const. Hist. ii. 362. The Parliament Roll, which was produced in Parliament in the 10th year of Richard II. (infra. p. 290) is not now extant. Foedera, ii. 683, 6S4. Deposition of and accompanied by Henry of Lancaster's very remark Richard II. A. D. 1399. able claim to the Crown, in which an insinuated priority of descent from Henry III., a right of conquest, and the misgovernment of Richard arc artfully combined. But the power of the National Assembly to depose and elect the Sovereign is brought out with peculiar distinctness in the official record entered on the Parliamentary Rolls. The Parliament which deposed him was summoned to meet the 30th September, by writs issued in Richard's name on the 19th of August, the same day on which he met the Duke of Lancaster at Flint. Richard, while a prisoner in the Tower, executed a formal Deed of Resignation on the 29th of September, which was presented to the Parliament assembled on the following day. The resignation of the King was held to have the technically legal effect of dissolving the Parliament as soon as it had met, but the Assembly, as the representative of the Estates of the Realm, accepted the resignation, deposed the King, and elected his successor. In the record of the proceedings, after reciting Richard's resignation of the crown, the crimes of which he had been guilty, and his general unfitness to be king, the formula of deposition runs : 'Propter pracmissa, et corum practextu, ab omni dignitate et honore regiis, si quid dignitatis et honoris hujusmodi in eo remanserit, merito deponendum pronunciamus, decernimus, et declaramus, et etiam simili cautela deponimus.' The throne is then declared vacant: ut constabat de praemissis, et eorum occasione, regnum Angliae, cum pertinentiis suis, vacare.' Finally the crown is granted to Henry 'concesserunt unanimiter ut Dux praefatus Election of super eos regnaret. The election of Henry IV. was of course determined by special circumstances, yet in one Henry IV. Fresh writs were consequently issued on the 30th Sept. summoning the same assembly to meet as a l'arliament six days later. Lords' Report on Dignity of a Peer, iv. 768. 226 Pares et proceres regni Angliae spirituales et temporales, et ejus regni communitates, omnes Status ejusdem regni repraesentantes.' Walsingham, ii. 234. Walsingham, ii. 234-238; Rot. Parl. iii. 416, et seq. |